Has anyone fallen from Preikestolen?
Why there is no number
People ask for a figure and I cannot give one honestly. Norwegian press practice is not to report deaths believed to be suicides, and that is a deliberate and long-standing convention rather than an oversight. It means any total circulating online is assembled from the incidents that were reported, and is therefore incomplete by construction. I would rather say that than repeat a number I cannot stand behind.
What is on the record
The first reported fatality involving a tourist is dated October 2013. On 3 June 2024, at around half past ten in the morning, a Norwegian man hiking alone fell roughly 150 to 200 metres from the summit area. His body was recovered the same afternoon by the Rogaland alpine rescue service. The mayor of Strand, Irene Heng Lauvsnes, called it a very sad incident. That is the whole of what I am going to say about it, because that is the whole of what is known publicly and the rest is not mine to guess at.
Separately, and much more often, people have to be rescued off this mountain without dying. In early July 2019, a record year for visitors, call-outs had already passed the previous year’s entire total. There is no reliable annual figure, so I will not invent one. The pattern is discussed on hiking injuries.
What the plateau is actually like
Flat, about 25 by 25 metres, and then nothing. There is no fence, no railing and no marked setback line, by deliberate choice of the land managers, which is explained on the fence page. In practice the risk is not the drop, which does not move. It is wet granite, wind that comes up the fjord without warning, people walking backwards to frame a photograph, and children who do not read edges the way adults do.
None of that makes the place unusually dangerous for a mountain. It makes it a real cliff with no barrier on it, visited by hundreds of thousands of people who would not otherwise stand on one. The honest safety assessment is on how safe it is.
Sit down when you want the photograph. Sitting on the rock a metre back from the edge gives you the same picture and takes the drop out of the equation entirely. Almost every uncomfortable moment I have watched up there involved somebody standing up and stepping back to get more in frame.
What there is to book
Not the trail. Nobody sells a ticket to Preikestolen and nobody can, so anything you pay for is something else: the ride out of Stavanger, the guide who walks it with you, or the boat that shows you the cliff from the water. Which of the three you actually need is set out on the bookings page and in the comparison.
Frequently asked questions
How many people have died at Preikestolen?
No complete public figure exists, partly because Norwegian media does not report suspected suicides. Any total you find online is incomplete.
How far is the drop?
Around 250 metres from the plateau. The plateau itself stands 604 metres above the Lysefjord.
Is it safe to take children up?
Many families do it in summer, and the top needs hands held. Under-fives should not go in winter conditions. See going with children.